At A Glance

- Puzzle game with casual appeal, hardcore depth, addictive new mechanic.
- Multiplayer co-op and competitive play.
- Adventure with action-oriented levels and puzzle-oriented side objectives.
- Rich, painterly art style.
- Many opportunities for user-generated content.

Overview

This game is the brainchild of guest lead designer Lars Bull, who has provided ongoing design assistance with AI War and other Arcen titles. The core mechanic is finally revealed below, and now you can see why we've been so excited about it. It's one of those mechanics that is immediately intuitive and fun for puzzle fans, but which also provides a lot of depth for expert players, which was just as important to us as was surface accessibility.

Block-based puzzle games are a dime a dozen, but a lot of them are either match-3 clones, tetris clones, or based on very obtuse mechanics that only hardcore puzzle fans can really get into. Tidalis uses a mechanic that can be grasped in seconds, but which leads to both a non-click-crazy action mode and a fiendishly clever puzzle mode. We'll be having a public beta of the game starting in mid to late March, aiming for a digital release of the game at the start of June.

Alpha Screenshot 1 (Click To See Fullsize)

What Is The Gameplay Like?

The basic rules of the game are this: blocks fall down from the top of the board and have a color and an arrow direction. If a block tries to fall from the top of the screen but can't because of lack of room, you lose.

In order to clear blocks, you must right-click and drag paths through like-colored blocks using the arrows in order to set up chain reactions. You then left-click one of those blocks to send a stream out of it and along the path you set up. The minimum chain reaction size is three blocks, but you won't get very far with those. Most chains are 5-7 blocks at least, and a very few are twenty blocks or more. The more blocks you put into a chain, the bigger your score.

When a chain finishes, all of its blocks clear at once. The blocks above then fall, and those at the bottom of these falling stacks will automatically send out a stream of their own upon landing. By taking advantage of this effect, you can set up extensive combos for even more points.

Tidalis is not a game about quick reflexes, though those can be helpful for some play styles. Rather, it is a game of planning and wits even in the action-oriented modes. Spam-clicking the board has literally no effect, as you can't left-click to start more streams while there are any other ones still on the board. When streams are flying, you'll be arranging combos and preparing for the next chains. With a smart setup, a single stream can lead to massive combos with a lot of chains happening at once!

For added variety, some of the blocks that fall into the board may be special blocks such as Ice, Fire, Charred, Glass, Stone, Tinder, Eaters, and more. They have a wide range of different properties and can change the terrain of the board drastically.

Alpha Screenshot 2 (Click To See Fullsize)

What Overall Game Modes Are There?

The basic game modes are Adventure, Quick Play, Vs, Custom Puzzle, and Co-Op.

Adventure is a story-driven, map-based chain of levels that will include at least 100 main action-oriented levels (in a variety of styles), as well as at least 100 secondary puzzle-oriented levels of varying difficulty. Bits of story are given at the start of each level, and can be easily skipped for players who aren't interested or are attempting the level for the second time. Adventure mode will also be playable in two player co-op mode via Internet/LAN play.

Quick Play allows players to jump right into a certain style of game. You can tweak board size, difficulty, frequencies of special blocks and items, time limits, and game goals. All of the various level styles from adventure mode are available in quick play from the start, allowing players to completely skip the adventure and just enjoy quick style games if they are inclined. More on the various level styles below.

Vs is a competitive mode for two players (either one human and one AI, or two humans via network play). It is action-oriented and rewards skillful play by dropping hazardous special blocks on your opponent, or by providing items (if enabled) for you to use against your opponent.

Custom Puzzle features lists of brain-teasing puzzles for players to solve. Players can also create puzzles and upload them to the Arcen forums for other puzzle-fans to download and enjoy.

Co-Op is a collaborative mode between two human players via network play. There are a few co-op-specific level styles, and all of the level styles from quick play and adventure can also be played as co-op. The adventure mode itself can also have a second player join and leave at any time. In co-op, each player always has his/her own board and does not directly interact with their ally's. Instead, co-op players are jointly pursuing a combined goal, generating items and bonuses for their partner via skillful play, strategically using items to get their ally out of a jam, gaining bonuses for "unison" combos, or generally helping each other survive.

Alpha Screenshot 3 (Click To See Fullsize)

What Level Styles Are There?

Adventure, Quick Play, and Co-Op have a wide variety of level styles and game rules that keep things interesting in addition to all of the special blocks and items that are available in the game. Don't worry about getting overwhelmed; these are introduced gradually through adventure mode, and each have fairly simple, iconic rules to them. Here are a few example level styles:

Normal is the simplest and most iconic mode in Tidalis. It can be played as a score challenge or with other objectives, with or without a time limit. It follows all of the basic gameplay rules specified above, with options to enable or disable special blocks or items. This mode alone is already very addictive.

Zen is exactly like normal, except that the board is always completely filled with blocks and it is impossible to lose. As soon as you clear blocks, new blocks fall right back down to take their place. This can lead to a more relaxed game, as well as really huge chains and combos due to all of the onscreen blocks.

Line Clear follows the basic rules of normal mode, but scoring is completely different. In this mode, chains and combos give you no points at all. Instead, when you clear a block it lights up its background tile in bright white. When an entire row is lit up, that row clears and earns you some points. The more rows you clear at a time, the more points you earn.

Water style levels have water seeping in from the bottom of the well, causing many blocks to float. Additionally, bubbles form at the bottom of the well, which then rise to the surface of the water, pushing entire columns of blocks dangerously upward. You are scored as normal, but you have the added challenge of popping bubbles, hitting special blocks to lower the ever-rising water level, and similar. This is a good example of one of the harder level styles from much later into the adventure mode.

In all, Tidalis is expected to ship with around a dozen level styles, most of which have not yet been announced.

User-Generated Content Welcome

All of the tools that are being used to create the in-game puzzles and levels, the adventure mode maps and layout, and even the background visual/music "themes" will be available to players of the game. This means that it is easy for anyone to create puzzles and even whole adventures if they are inclined to do so. In order to create specific themes, or different world map backgrounds, you'll need digital drawing skills and/or musical skills outside the game, but we're including these tools so that modders can create new themes and such if they are so inclined.